'Isolation ordered for girl who stopped TB drugs'

The Department of Health says it is following up on a tuberculosis case in a Sha Tin secondary school. File photo: RTHK

RTHK has learnt that health authorities are going to order a 12-year-old girl into isolation after she failed to complete treatment for her drug-resistant tuberculosis as instructed by doctors.

The source says the Department of Health will ask for police assistance and social workers will follow up on the needs of her family.

But a department spokesman didn't respond to queries, saying he couldn't comment on individual cases. He did say officials are responding to the outbreak of tuberculosis at a Sha Tin school.

He said students and teachers who had been in close contact with those infected will be screened and receive preventive treatments.

The spokesman said as tuberculosis has a long incubation period, there could be a limited number of cases in the next few months.

Last month, Kiangsu-Chekiang College in Sha Tin reported that seven of its students and a teacher were infected with tuberculosis. But the health department spokesman declined to say if the girl is from the same school.

The Centre for Health Protection had ruled there was no need for the secondary school to suspend classes and said things were under control.